Three-quarters (76%) of American adults know someone who is out of work and looking for a job, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. But that's a slight improvement from August when 81% knew someone in that situation.

African-Americans are slightly less likely than whites and adults of other ethnicities to know someone out of work and searching for employment, but the numbers are high across virtually all demographic groups. (To see question wording, click here.)

Just 19% say the job market is getting better, but 42% say it's getting worse. But that, too, is a slight improvement from the previous survey. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say the job market is staying about the same.

The national unemployment rate is hovering near 10%, but 32% of Americans think unemployment will be lower a year from now. Thirty-five percent (35%) say it will remain about the same. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say the unemployment rate will be higher in a year's time, but that's down seven points from June.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on October 23-24, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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